guest contribution from Jeffry Korgen of the Dorothy Day Guild Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, was a friend to workers throughout the 20th Century. Her promotion of worker justice extended from the IWW back in the early 20th Century, to her efforts, after her conversion to Catholicism, to promote Church support of […]
The typical way workers form a union in the United States is ugly. When a majority of workers expresses interest in forming a union, management makes it their mission to talk them out of it by fair means or foul. At best, they force employees to sit through long lectures on the clock while they […]
Of all America’s workers, farmworkers are among the most poorly treated. That’s why the Catholic Labor Network, the Diocese of Columbus and Ohio Faith in Public Life organized a letter from faith leaders across the Buckeye state urging Wendy’s to clean up its supply chain by joining the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Fair Food […]
It’s not always wages and benefits that drive workers to organize. In the Kingspan factory in Santa Ana, California workers are seeking to form a union and bargain collectively because the company was taking risks with their health. Kingspan, an Irish multinational, produces materials for green building construction and says on its website that “buildings […]
Google’s old corporate slogan was “Don’t be evil.” And in recent conversations with two Catholic Labor Network members – Stephen McMurty of the Alphabet Workers Union and Chuck Hendricks of UNITE HERE – who have firsthand knowledge, I’ve been pleased to learn that Google’s labor relations practices seem more enlightened than some other companies I’ve […]
One way Catholic institutions can demonstrate their faith – and evangelize the world – is by honoring Catholic Social Teaching in their labor relations practices. Many do this by recognizing and bargaining with unions representing their employees and by paying a living wage to workers in all job classifications; some do so by obliging their […]
The right of workers to organize and bargain collectively has been fundamental to Catholic Social Teaching since Pope Leo XIII issued his Encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891. But in Virginia, public employees have long lacked that right. The Catholic Labor Network is supporting workers in Virginia’s Fairfax and Loudoun Counties who are fighting to change […]
Workers ask participants to boycott hotel until they are returned to work For decades these workers, from housekeepers to banquet servers, had made the Sheraton Columbia the premier venue for weddings, meetings and conferences in Maryland’s Howard County – that is, until a new owner purchased the hotel and decided to throw them out like […]
by Fr. Sinclair Oubre, JCL, Spiritual Moderator of the Catholic Labor Network Earlier this month, Robert Kambic called me with the sad news that his loving wife of 51 years and life-long workers and union advocate had passed away. Mary Kambic’s life was one of total commitment to her Catholic Faith and our Catholic Social […]
Readers of this blog will be familiar with our questions about what happens when for-profit corporations purchase Catholic hospitals. No man can serve two masters, our Lord reminded us (Mt 6:24). These tie-ups inevitably bring a tug-of-war between the mission of a Catholic hospital and the mission of delivering profits to shareholders. The St Vincent’s […]